A search warrant made public this month reports how liquor businesses covered expenses for 11 state lawmakers in 2022 and nine lawmakers in 2024 to attend distillery tours in Kentucky, both trips arranged by a nonprofit now under investigation.
The warrant was made public roughly a month after a Wake County grand jury indicted four lobbyists on a charge of violating the state law that bans gifts to state lawmakers.
Special Agent Kailah Kearney of the State Bureau of Investigation sought the warrant to search bank records connected to Greater Carolina, a Mooresville-based nonprofit initially formed by a former aide in 2018 to then state Rep. Jason Saine…